In Acts 1:6, after 40 days of discussing with the disciples the Kingdom of God, the Disciples asked Jesus the following question.
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Acts 1:6
Some have taken this to mean that the Kingdom of Heaven was not then there in the possession of the Apostles, but this is not at all what the question means.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
Luke 22:29
Luke 22:29 says that Jesus then appointed a Kingdom unto the disciples. The case is not future, “will appoint”, but it is present, and current.
No, the disciples possessed the Kingdom. The question is not when they will receive the Kingdom, they already had it, or would have it shortly on the day of Pentecost. But, rather, the question is asking when the Kingdom will be restored to the Nation.
At this time, the Kingdom is only upon Jesus’ followers, and the nation as a whole has not embraced the Messiah, had not been born again, and would not receive the baptism of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1.
The question is not when they, the twelve and the other followers, would receive the Kingdom, but when the nation would.
We find the answer in Ezekiel 39.
I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 39:29
After the Gog Magog war, which is described in the end of Revelation 20, God has said He will no longer hide his face from His people, His nation. On that day, He will restore the Kingdom, not to the 12 who already had it, but to the nation as a whole, and pour out His Spirit the Israel.
As Paul said in Romans 11:25, “all Israel will be saved”, that is, come to saving belief in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and their Lord, the creator of creation, the Son of the Father, the only true and living God over all.
Whether the disciples fully grasped what they were asking, Jesus’ clear words were that the time for this is sealed in the will of the Father, and it was not for them to know the dates that He alone had set by His own authority.
Instead of seeing a national revival and the nation receiving the Kingdom, they were told that they would receive power and be witnesses. Witness of what? Witness of the Kingdom they would then be in possession of. Without the Kingdom, there would be no witness, period.